Flights were returning to normal today after a four-hour strike by Italian air traffic controllers.

The four-hour stoppage led to Ryanair axing 96 flights to and from Italy, including four return services involving flights to and from the UK.

EasyJet had to cancel up to 60 flights, 20 of these affecting services in and out of the UK, and British Airways (BA) was also affected, having to make a few cancellations and re-time some flights.

The strike was from 11.30am to 3.30pm UK time, and a BA spokesman said later: "There were a number of cancellations. A number of flights were put back until after the strike, but as soon as the strike ended, the intention was to get them into the air, and that is happening now."

The Ryanair cancellations included Manchester-Bologna, Stansted-Ancona, Stansted-Trieste and Liverpool-Pisa.

Spokesman Robin Kiely said: " We sincerely apologise to all passengers who have had their travel plans disrupted by these unjustified ATC strikes."

EasyJet said: "We are doing everything possible to minimise the impact to our customers and we are offering anyone flying to and from Italy during those times the opportunity to transfer their flight free of charge to another day to avoid the strike. They should go to easyJet.com to make changes to their flights."

Ryanair said it had no more cancellations than were expected, and operations were now running as normal.